ABOUT THE CREATORS

KATE FORSYTH

Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven and has since sold more than a million copies worldwide. Her books for adults include The Blue Rose, Beauty in Thorns, The Beast’s Garden, The Wild Girl, and BitterGreens which won the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction. Kate’s books for children include the collections of feminist fairy-tale retellings Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, The Buried Moon & Other Tales of Bright Young Women, and Snow White, Rose Red & Other Tales of Kind Young Women. The first in the series won a silver medal in the 2018 Readers Favorite book awards in the US. Other children’s books include The Impossible Quest fantasy series, shortlisted for a KOALA Award and a YABBA Award; the Aurealis-award winning historical adventure series The Chain of Charms, and The Puzzle Ring which was short-listed for the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel, and named an ‘Unsung Hero of 2009’ by international bloggers.Kate has also won the 2017 William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism and been honoured with the 2018 Australian Fairy Tale Society Award for her significant contribution to the field of fairy tale studies. Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a Doctorate of Creative Arts, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. Kate is a direct descendant of Charlotte Waring Atkinson, the author of the first book for children ever published in Australia.

“Fairy tales have been with us for a very long time. Ever since humans invented language, we have used those sounds laden with meaning to create stories – to teach, to warn, to entertain, and to effect change upon the world. … What I have discovered is that fairy tales are not just for children. They are for all humans, having the power to help us change not only ourselves but, indeed, the whole world.”

LORENA CARRINGTON

Lorena Carrington is an internationally published illustrator of middle grade, young adult and adult books. Her fairy tale collection with Kate Forsyth, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, received a silver medal in the Readers’ Favourite Book Awards. They have also collaborated on The Buried Moon & Other Tales of Bright Young Women, and Snow White, Rose Red & Other Tales of Kind Young Women. Lorena also exhibits her artwork at commercial and public art galleries including The Art Vault in Mildura, and the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery in Sydney, contributes to arts and literary festivals, and has work held in Australian and International collections. She frequently tours schools with presentations and workshops.

Lorena uses digital techniques to montage her photographs, creating layered images that aim to occupy the veiled place between our world and ‘the other’. The other place may reside for some through the looking glass, in the nostalgic magic of myths and fairy tales, in scientific wonder, or in something as fleeting as a sense of poignancy in a brief human connection. The sudden glimpse of that place pierces us, and draws a tingling thread through our being. It is the goose-bump moment, when suddenly our sense of the world shifts momentarily, almost imperceptibly, and makes us pause.